Kiss Me Box Set

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Kiss Me Box Set Page 52

by Hart, Emma


  “Barbie gave birth, then.” Leo opened the Doritos and stuck his hand in. “Stupid name for a hedgehog.”

  “Thank you,” Ava muttered. “I don’t even like them, and now I have ten.”

  “It could be worse. You could be Halley,” I offered.

  “Is she throwing up into her hair every day?” she shot back.

  “Unless she’s part of your experiment,” Leo started. “No. But she does have Boris Jr. living on a cat tower in her utility room, remember?”

  Ah. Of course. Boris had, once again, knocked up Betty, and earlier this year, one of the babies had almost died. Halley had taken the runt of the litter in and nursed him through until he was healthy enough to go back to Betty, but he’d refused.

  Then he’d humped Preston’s shoe.

  Thus the name Boris Jr. It now refused to live outside and had his very own cat tower, where he fought for dominance with the actual cat they’d adopted a few months ago.

  They were thisclose to opening their own Facebook profile.

  I kind of wanted them to.

  “Mmph.” Ava snatched the chips away from her brother. “Get the fuck off my Doritos.”

  Leo shot me a look.

  I nodded, eyes wide. “Listen to her, man. They’re stashed everywhere.”

  She froze. “Actually, no. I ate them all. I need more.”

  “Weren’t you throwing up two hours ago?”

  “Weren’t you just telling me how much you love me, and you’re going to get me Doritos whenever I want since this is your fault?”

  “Technically, you’re fifty percent responsible.”

  “Technically, Leo is the one who made us live together, and we agreed that everything that happened was his fault.”

  She wasn’t wrong there.

  Leo motioned toward the door. “Yeah. I, er, I’ve got a date, so…”

  Ava grinned, orange Dorito coating her lips. “That’s what I thought.”

  “Love you, sis.” Leo blew an awkward kiss in her direction, and she responded by shoving her middle finger in his direction. He laughed and left as quickly as he’d arrived.

  I waited for a second before I said, “So… I should get you more Doritos now.”

  She looked up at me, her bright eyes shining wide, and shook her head.

  “Candy? Chocolate? Ice cream? Pickles?” I paused. “Don’t pregnant people like pickles dipped in random shit?”

  Her bottom lip stuck out. “Can I have a cuddle?”

  My heart squeezed tightly. I didn’t even answer her. I just crossed the room and wrapped my arms around her, pulling her into me.

  “I’ll cuddle you for however long you want, whenever you want. Even if your hair smells a bit like vomit and you’re covered in Dorito dust.” I kissed the top of her head.

  She shook silently.

  “Are you crying?”

  “No.” She was laughing. She was fucking laughing. “This is just…weird. Don’t you think?”

  “The fact you threw up in your hair and didn’t shower? More gross than weird.”

  “Oh, my God. You dick.”

  “My dick got us into this situation, sunshine. It ain’t getting us out of it.”

  She squeezed my waist hard. “No. Like, everything. We just bought a house and we’re having a baby. Reagan and Halley are both engaged, and Halley’s getting married in three weeks.”

  “Reagan is eloping if you believe what she says.”

  “Only because Bethel keeps crashing Halley’s fittings, and she’s shitting herself.” She paused. “I’m going to be too fat for a bridesmaid dress soon.”

  “Okay, listen to me.” I pulled back and leaned down, framing her face with my hands. “Reagan and Noah are getting married in eighteen months. The baby will be here, and you will be beautiful. You will be beautiful every single day between now and then, you hear me? Even when you’re nine months pregnant or you think you’re horrible or your hair has someone else’s vomit in it instead of your own, I will not think you are anything less than absolutely beautiful.”

  Her eyes filled with tears. “Keep talking. I like that.”

  I smiled, perching on the stool next to her so I was on her level. “I love you, Ava. I’ve loved you for so long, and I will love you in another twenty years. Okay? And in twenty years, when we have a soccer team and fifty hedgehogs living in the corner of our garage, I’ll love you even more than I do right now. All right?”

  “All right,” she sobbed. “I’ll hold you to that.”

  I laughed, pulling her into my body once more. “You’re so silly.”

  “I know.” She sniffed, wiping her nose on my shirt and leaving a trail of boogers there.

  “Thanks.”

  “Get used to it,” she muttered. “It’ll be a trail of urine before you know it.”

  “Not yours, I hope.”

  “Cannot guarantee it.” She wiped at her cheeks. “I love you, Ethan.”

  “I know you do, sunshine.” I kissed her temple.

  “Good. Now please buy me some fucking Doritos.”

  COMING SOON

  FRENEMIES, a wildly hilarious SINGLE DAD romcom! Coming January 21st and available for pre-order on all retailers now!!

  ~

  There are some things you just have to deal with.

  Like your hot as hell college booty call moving in next door with his adorable daughter.

  The only time we’ve ever gotten along is under the sheets. Old habits die hard because two minutes on my front porch is how long it takes us to bicker.

  Not that a little fact like that bothers my healthy, eighty-year-old grandmother and roommate who’s determined to see me married before she bites the dust.

  Unfortunately for me, she’s got her eye set on Cameron Black.

  She’s barking up the wrong tree. He’s not The One, no matter how much I swoon when I see him with his daughter. I have no intentions of rekindling anything with him—until a rubber spider in my mailbox starts off the mother of all neighborhood prank wars, just like the ones we had in college, and throws me right into his path.

  One that leads right to his bedroom…

  VISIT www.emmahart.net/frenemies to order!

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  Emma Hart is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of over thirty novels and has been translated into several different languages.

  She is a mother, wife, lover of wine, Pink Goddess, and valiant rescuer of wild baby hedgehogs.

  Emma prides herself on her realistic, snarky smut, with comebacks that would make a PMS-ing teenage girl proud.

  Yes, really. She’s that sarcastic.

  You can find her online at:

  www.emmahart.org

  www.facebook.com/emmahartbooks

  www.instagram.com/EmmaHartAuthor

  www.pinterest.com/authoremmahart

  Alternatively, you can join her reader group at Emma Harts Hartbreakers.

  You can also get all things Emma to your email inbox by signing up for Emma Alerts*

  www.emmahart.net/newsletter

  *Emails sent for sales, new releases, pre-order availability, and cover reveals. Each cover reveal contains an exclusive excerpt.

  BOOKS BY EMMA HART

  Standalones:

  Being Brooke

  Catching Carly

  Casanova

  Mixed Up

  Miss Fix-It

  Miss Mechanic

  The Upside to Being Single

  The Hook-Up Experiment

  The Dating Experiment

  Four Day Fling

  Best Served Cold

  Tequila Tequila

  Catastrophe Queen

  The Roommate Agreement

  The Accidental Girlfriend

  Kiss Me Not

  The Vegas Nights series:

  Sin

  Lust

  Stripped series:

  Stripped Bare

  Stripped Down

  The Burke Brothers:

 
Dirty Secret

  Dirty Past

  Dirty Lies

  Dirty Tricks

  Dirty Little Rendezvous

  The Holly Woods Files:

  Twisted Bond

  Tangled Bond

  Tethered Bond

  Tied Bond

  Twirled Bond

  Burning Bond

  Twined Bond

  Tricky Bond

  By His Game series:

  Blindsided

  Sidelined

  Intercepted

  Call series:

  Late Call

  Final Call

  His Call

  Wild series:

  Wild Attraction

  Wild Temptation

  Wild Addiction

  Wild: The Complete Series

  The Game series:

  The Love Game

  Playing for Keeps

  The Right Moves

  Worth the Risk

  Memories series:

  Never Forget

  Always Remember

 

 

 


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